Chris Herrington decided years ago that his reality was much more fun…
and he’s ready to tell you why.
Sit back and relax.
It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Whenever politicians start monkeying with the system at large, I try to get a feel for what they are doing. Mr. Newt Gingrich would like to abolish the EPA. We know that this insidious arm of tree huggers everywhere is keeping us down and must be ratted out for the defunct money waster that it is, or something like that. Let me see. Well, maybe we could look at the sections of the clean air act that are being upheld by the EPA:
Table of Contents
• Title I – Air Pollution Prevention and Control
o Part A – Air Quality and Emission Limitations (CAA § 101-131; USC § 7401-7431 )
o Part B – Ozone Protection (replaced by Title VI)
o Part C – Prevention of Significant Deterioration of Air Quality (CAA § 160-169b; USC § 7470-7492)
o Part D – Plan Requirements for Nonattainment Areas (CAA § 171-193; USC § 7501-7515)
• Title II – Emission Standards for Moving Sources
o Part A – Motor Vehicle Emission and Fuel Standards (CAA § 201-219; USC § 7521-7554)
o Part B – Aircraft Emission Standards (CAA § 231-234; USC § 7571-7574)
o Part C – Clean Fuel Vehicles (CAA § 241-250; USC § 7581-7590)
• Title III – General (CAA § 301-328; USC § 7601-7627)
• Title IV – Acid Deposition Control (CAA § 401-416; USC § 7651-7651o)
• Title V – Permits (CAA § 501-507; USC § 7661-7661f )
• Title VI – Stratospheric Ozone Protection (CAA § 601-618; USC § 7671-7671q )
Now, if you would like private business to control any of this, let me start by saying that part of Mr. Gingrich’s plan is to incentivize businesses to clean up the pollution they make by paying them not to make it or to deal with it in a more environmentally safe way. We need to pay them to make money. Hmmmmm.
o
Well, I would like a deal like that. IT sounds more like a protection racket. Pay us, and we will not poison you. Sweet heart deal, eh?
o
With all that extra money that the government pays polluters to curb their appetite to pollute, they want to hire more people, presumably to work in less polluted, self-policed, government funded, safer jobs, right? Now, if the government pays these businesses to hire more people with a kick back for not poisoning them, then how is that not socialism? Oh yeah, that would be if the government owned the businesses, but this is where the businesses own the government…. I’m not sure what form of government that is. If the business does something that is rotten, but it can’t be put in jail, and if the people working at the business are merely following the business model, then what would stop them from working their magic on all of us by sucking up our tax money and cleaning up everything we have been screaming for them to clean up all along? What is the Superfund up to now?
http://www.epa.gov/oecaerth/cleanup/superfund/recovercosts.html
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-380
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08841r.pdf
o
Holy Crap! There are 47,000 sites! 1,500+ are a priority, and the amount of money available has been dwindling all along. We can see by the map in the last section that as soon as the laws were passed, the number of new sites really fell. My question is, “What in the world good would it do to have businesses police themselves if they won’t do it right already?”
o
A few years ago, I went to the local car wash to clean things up, and I saw one of the local T-shirt companies cleaning their printing screens at the car wash, and the guy was using this stuff that was in gallon jugs, and being a nosey thing I picked one up and read that it was CARCINOGENIC. Doesn’t that mean that it causes cancer? Yea, well, he was just doing what he was told. I called them, and they said that the tanks to clean the screens cost like a $1000 dollars! “Well, I wonder how much it costs to replace your liver if it gets cancer,” I asked the guy. He just said that he was doing the best he could. Look, these people are just trying to make a buck, right. So, here’s the deal.
o
Go to Wal-Mart or Target or Lowe’s or wherever, and stand on the isle where they sell whatever chemical they sell, and then think to yourself, “There are 1,100 school districts in the State of Texas and there are 50 states.” That’s a lot of cleaning and painting and gluing and greasing. And then there are the prescription drugs that get tossed or used. Then there are all businesses and their fluids, pastes, powders, and gases. Then there is all of the industrial waste, the toxins, the pollution, the off gassing, and the byproducts. Then the packaging for everything, including what the most basic supplies come in to make the stuff we buy. And then we have the landfills. I mean, at some level, how can our water supply be safe or saved if we can’t begin to clean the air that surrounds it? Sure, we are all going to die someday, but tell your kid to think passed the oncoming train of the fear that he has of 2012 with the end of the Mayan calendar, and you may get blank stares. Tell him that everything he buys is killing him slowly, and see how that goes over.
o
Blah, blah, blah…..more scare tactics. I want to make a buck as much as the next guy, but if I have to make poison to make a buck, then maybe I need a new business plan. The thing is, what they are doing right now is working so well that they can’t even begin to think of anything else. Why can’t the government simply stay out of their business and let them make a buck even if it does have the side effect of killing people slowly? If the people don’t mind buying poison, why not make it for them? Then why not legalize drugs? Why not let gays marry? Why not let women preach? Why not let people go naked in public? Why not simply let everyone do whatever they want to do regardless of the impact that it might have on everyone else? As far as I know, being gay is not in and of itself lethal or terminal, but 400,000 people a year die from smoking related diseases. The point is that gay lobbyists simply don’t have enough money to bribe our officials. Polluters do. If the gay lobby had as much money as the gun or oil lobby, we would have gay marriage in every state. If that is not true, then what is our personal stake in allowing businesses to pollute so heavily? Somebody is making a killing, literally! I find it really funny that people will argue over global warming. It’s not like they care about it, really. The argument is made and they extend it for the reason that they simply think they should; what stake do they have in doing so? We might know why the polluters would argue the point, but what would any average person get out of arguing that point of view? People will use statistics to probe and prove a point and in the next argument they will argue that you can make statistics say anything! This is crazy talk! Send in the flying monkies!
o
It’s a line of thinking; I’m neither pro nor con people’s being gay. It simply does not affect me; I do, nevertheless, question why it bothers others. I am, however, a person who drinks water, breaths air, swims in lakes and the ocean, and who has to put up with dust kicked up by passing vehicles, and that is how a lot of pollution gets into our systems and our homes: what we eat, drink, breath, and touch. Some people believe that this is some sort of evil plan to take us back to the cave man days, cleaning up after ourselves. (Don’t wash the dishes, just get new ones!) Some people might think that this is the evil thinking of some pinko commie left wing lunatic. The only people who don’t think this way are people who have not had their health disrupted by pollution, plain and simple. You guys can still afford to push ahead your head into the sand; the medical bills have deterred your bucket list.
o
Gingrich also believes that the way to force people into reality concerning their health care is to forcefully raise the costs so much that they will practice preventative medicine and good eating habits. When it costs too much to die, then people will think more about living longer. It’s a simple concept. Let’s carry it out. If this is true, that the more it costs us, the more we think about how precious it is, then what if they had to pay more to pollute in the first place? I mean, if it is good for me, then it is good for them. I’ll tell you what, you can crank my health care up 500% to teach me a lesson about eating properly. I think I have met my deductible 8 times in 33 years. In return, I want you to pay the full cost of all of the pollution you make, and I want to see all of the internal memos you create that documents all of the junk you have been raining down on us for all this time that created the SuperFund sites, the acid rain, the lead-lined lakes, the lead-lined streets, the benzene burned lungs, the birth defects, the lung disease, the heart attacks, the cancer rise, and the millions of deaths worldwide from tainted fish, smashed eco systems, and broken down rivers, streams, coral reefs, and shorelines. In fact, why not just let us see the second set of books you keep on how you have concentrated the world’s resources into cesspools of toxins just to make non-renewable energy, toys, plastic junk, and secret hordes of blood money cash just to line your pockets at the expense of the human race? Too harsh? Really? Then why are you against the use of regulations to keep you in line?
o
Get rid of the EPA. I don’t have any kids; what do I care? Die rich, for all it will gain you.
o
I’ll just remind you: Your kids will eventually be breathing the same air as the poorest people in the world, and then you will have to buy the best respirator that money can buy, your newest fashion statement? I hear the Jacksons have a hyperbolic chamber for sale….. you smooth criminal.
o
runningturtle87
Having completed 32 years of public school service, Chris Herrington lives, with his wife, in Appleby, Texas, and his writing consists of blogging and essay writing concerning an array of topics including education, mediation, self-development, and human interests. He teaches at the Martin School of Choice, plays racquetball, and enjoys his job.
Chris Herrington can be reached at herrington@everythingnac.com
